we live in the obama era. not the john boehner era. >> the other thing, john, is the potential political blood that could be spilled. if the president gets tax hikes, which he can do, a couple of different ways. he could muscle this through by the end of the year. then all of a sudden you face another debt ceiling debate, where the republicans can use that to try to extract concessions. and then we get into another standoff again after the first of the year. >> that's why there's a split in the white house when it comes to the debt ceiling. one camp says the debt ceiling has to be part of the deal now because we can't risk it being part of it, shaking confidence. then we'll have the question of credit rating agencies, how they'll respond. and then another camp says, no, let's make it part of the negotiations. let's wait until next year. and we'll get the pressure from the business community is going to be threatening. and so they're not sure which way this is going to shake out. and that's why the president ac